NASHVILLE (BP) – Ticket sales for an encore showing of “The Insanity of God” in theaters Tuesday, Sept. 13, pushed box office receipts to $1.1 million.
“Due to the success of the film’s two one-night theater showings,” Trey Reynolds, manager of LifeWay Films, said, “we are planning a church simulcast for the film the first or second week of November, with a consumer DVD and church license DVD to be released Nov. 21.”
The feature documentary film produced by the International Mission Board and Cooke Pictures and distributed by LifeWay Films tells the story of missionaries Nik and Ruth Ripken.
Ripken almost abandoned hope when he first arrived in Somalia 25 years ago. Then a young International Mission Board (IMB) missionary, Ripken had caught a ride with the Red Cross in a small plane carrying relief supplies across the border between Kenya and its war-ravaged neighbor.
What he saw shook him to the core. He met parents who asked for burial cloths for the children they’d lost rather than food and water for themselves and saw soldiers passing out narcotics rather than relief supplies to those in need.
It was a country where despair was commonplace.
“It was like I’d been plunged into hell,” Ripken recounts in the movie.
At one point in the film, he recalls sharing communion with four Somali believers, who feared for their lives. Soon afterward, he learned they and other Christians had been murdered.
He wondered how faith could survive in the midst of such suffering.
“What do you do when everything seems to be crucifixion and there’s no resurrection?” Ripken asks during the film.
That question soon became personal.
While at their home base in Kenya, the Ripkens’ young son Timothy suffered a severe asthma attack. Unbeknownst to the family, their home had a mold infestation exacerbated by the start of the rainy season.
Ripken rushed to the hospital. At one point, he pulled over and compelled a passerby to get in the car and drive so that he could administer CPR to Timothy.
But Ripken’s efforts were in vain and Timothy died. The Ripkens buried their son on the grounds of a school in Kenya, not far from their home.
The Ripkens struggled with guilt and wondered if Timothy would have lived if they had stayed in the United States.
Was their call to missions worth Timothy’s life?
Soon afterward, the Ripkens set out to answer that question. They traveled the globe, talking with Christians in more than 70 countries where believers face persecution.
Everywhere they went, they met believers who had been able to persevere despite their suffering. Among those persecuted Christians, the Ripkens found kindred souls, who knew the cost and suffering that come from following Jesus. They learned faith can endure and thrive, even in the midst of despair and struggle.
“Evil has never stopped doing what evil does,” Ripken says in the film. “God has not stopped doing what God does.”
“Whether an individual or local church watches this film – at a large event in their church or in the comfort of their homes – we believe God will use the testimonies to turn hearts and minds of believers to Him,” Reynolds said.
LifeWay has also released a six-session Bible study based on the documentary and Ripken’s book. The Insanity of Obedience Bible Study Book presents Ripken sharing true stories of people who are suffering for the name of Jesus.
Watch a trailer of the film at insanityofgodmovie.com.